Cologne/Nürburgring, 15 May 2018. Record crowd for the 46th ADAC Zurich 24-hour race on the Nürburgring, highest target audience share for NITRO since the channel was launched, over 8 million views for Vodafone's video streaming and a new lap record. That's the bottom line for the Zurich 24-hour race on the Nürburgring. "Last weekend, we experienced not only records but also raw excitement and emotion. Every year, the 24-hour race delivers legendary duels. We are grateful to be able to make a small contribution to this event together with strong partners such as ADAC, Zurich, RTL, NITRO, Vodafone and Germany's entire premium automotive industry", explains Peter Lauterbach, CEO of the promoter SPORTTOTAL AG.

Record crowd for the "race of the century"

Raw excitement: A two-hour interruption for fog 1 hour 10 minutes before the end, and a gripping duel to the finish between the Manthey Porsche (number 912) and previous leaders in the shape of the Mercedes-AMG team Black Falcon (number 4). After a nail-biting finish and 135 laps, Frédéric Makowiecki from the Manthey Racing team takes the chequered flag: the twelfth victory for a Porsche in the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring - in front of a record crowd of 210,000. "That was a genuine race of the century, simply indescribable in terms of the action. With the rain, the red phase and that unbelievable final dash", says Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser, Head of Motorsport and GT Cars at Porsche. Porsche brand ambassador Mark Webber: "There is no circuit in the world to compare with it when it comes to long-distance races. Neither Le Mans nor Daytona. This race is one of a kind."

New lap record

And it wasn't just the crowd record that fell: In top 30 qualifying on the Thursday before the Eifel classic, Laurens Vanthoor in the Manthey Porsche #911 (Estre/Dumas/L. Vanthoor/Bamber) posted a time of 8:09:105 minutes on the 25.378 kilometre circuit combining the Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit and the legendary Nordschleife - a new lap record.

Two audience records for NITRO - 8 million views for Vodafone

No wonder that this spectacular race also broke all records in the TV broadcast and live streaming. With a total of 8 million video views for the 46th ADAC Zurich 24-hour race, Vodafone also posted an impressive new record for live streaming: this represents a six-fold increase compared with the previous year. On linear TV, too, the race in the "Green Hell" delivered new records on the RTL Group's leading male channel. On the Saturday, NITRO achieved a market share for the day of 3.3 percent in the 14 to 59 male target market, and on Sunday the figure even reached 3.8 percent. These are the highest target market figures on a Saturday or Sunday since NITRO launched in April 2012. At its peak, the channel achieved a market share of 12.4 percent in the 14 to 59 male target market with the 24-hour race.

The highlights packages of the 24-hour race from the Nürburgring shown on the main RTL channel as part of the broadcast of the Formula 1 race in Barcelona also attracted excellent viewing figures with an average audience of 1.76 million viewers and a market share of 17.5 percent on the Saturday and 4.73 million viewers and a market share of 31.6 percent on the Sunday.

The social media platforms Twitter, Facebook and Instagram also generated excellent contacts in the young target market.

Worldwide, the race was shown on 38 channels in 152 countries.

About SPORTTOTAL AG:

SPORTTOTAL AG (ISIN: DE000A1EMG56) based in Cologne, is a technology and media company which is achieving growth in the quickly scalable digital business with video platforms and communities (DIGITAL), high-margin national and international projects (VENUES) as well as with live events (LIVE). In sporttotal.tv, the company which was set up in 1979, operates a highly frequented, high-growth portal for online sports videos and live streaming. In the process, the company equips amateur clubs with special video technology which allows sports events to be broadcast live on "sporttotal.tv" in high quality and fully automatically. The range of services offered by SPORTTOTAL AG also includes equipping racing circuits and sports venues with the necessary technology as well as the production and marketing of sporting events such as the ADAC Zurich 24-hour race on the Nürburgring. Furthermore, SPORTTOTAL AG also produces content for illustrious companies such as Porsche, Audi, Mercedes/AMG, Red Bull, VW or Deutsche Post AG, and it stages high-quality live events such as the Porsche Experience.